Thursday, August 30, 2018

UFOs, Russian Meddling, Alien Encounters: A Strange Saga

Russia’s undeniable and outrageous meddling in things that are none of their business has a significant bearing on the UFO issue of yesteryear. With that in mind, I thought it would be timely to bring to your attention a few intriguing and eye-opening issues. Firstly, the pro-Russia stance of a certain famous UFO Contactee. That man was George Adamski. He was arguably the most famous and controversial of all the Contactees: he claimed multiple encounters with human-like aliens from other worlds, including Venus, no less (yeah, right…). The facts concerning the Russian issue are contained in Adamski’s FBI file, which is in the public domain, thanks to the terms of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. An FBI document of May 28, 1952 reveals that the FBI had a credible source who, back in 1950, had shared with them certain data on Adamski. The file states:

“On September 5, 1950, [source] advised the San Diego Office that he first met Adamski about three months ago at the café which is named the Palomar Gardens Café, owned and operated by Adamski, at the road junction, five miles East of Rincon, California, at a point where the highway branches off leading to Mount Palomar Observatory. [Source] advised that Adamski has four or five women working in the café  and according to [source] business does not warrant the employment of four or five persons. [Source] stated that on August 20, 1950, the occasion of his last visit to Adamski’s café, he [source] and a [deleted] of San Diego, became involved in a lengthy conversation with Adamski during which Adamski told them at great length of his findings of flying saucers and so forth. He told them of a space ship which he said he saw between the earth and the moon, which he estimated to be approximately three miles in length, which was flying so fast that he had to take about eighty photographs before he could get three of them to turn out.”

The story continues: “At this time, Adamski showed [source] and [deleted] a number of photographs which he has taken of what he purports to be flying saucers. [Source] commented that one of these photographs was published in the ‘San Diego Union’ under the caption of ‘What is it?’ Adamski stated he had first submitted this particular photograph to the Navy but when it appeared they were not interested, he, Adamski, released it for publication in the ‘San Diego Union.’

“According to [source] Adamski stated that the Federal Communications Commission, under the direction of the ‘Military Government’ of the United States, has established communication with the people from other worlds, and has learned that they are so much more advanced than the inhabitants of this earth that they have deciphered the languages used here. Adamski stated that in this interplanetary communication, the Federal Communications Commission asked the inhabitants of the other planet concerning the type of government they had there and the reply indicated that it was very different from the democracy of the United States. Adamski stated that his answer was kept secret by the United States Government, but he added, ‘If you ask me they probably have a Communist form of government and our American government wouldn’t release that kind of thing, naturally. That is a thing of the future – more advanced.’”

This is, of course, all highly controversial. And, it’s very easy to understand why the FBI should have taken such a deep interest in Adamski’s opinions on extraterrestrials and communism. Let’s not forget that at the time – the very early 1950s – Joseph Stalin still ruled ruthlessly over the Soviet Union. I suspect that if Adamski had actually visited Russia in that period, he would have headed back to the United States in rapid-time. And without a look back. The FBI file continues: “Adamski, during this conversation, made the prediction that Russia will dominate the world and we will then have an era of peace for 1,000 years. He stated that Russia already has the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb and that the great earthquake, which was reported behind the Iron Curtain recently, was actually a hydrogen bomb explosion being tried out by the Russians. Adamski states this ‘earthquake’ broke seismograph machines and he added that no normal earthquake can do that.”

There was even more, too: “Adamski stated that within the next twelve months, San Diego will be bombed. Adamski stated that it does not make any difference if the United States has more atom bombs than Russia inasmuch as Russia needs only ten atom bombs to cripple the United States by placing these simultaneously on such spots as Chicago and other vital centers of this country. Adamski further stated the United States today is in the same state of deterioration as was the Roman Empire prior to its collapse and it will fall just as the Roman Empire did. He stated the Government in this country is a corrupt form of government and capitalists are enslaving the labor.”

The FBI also recorded the following: “[Source] advised that when Adamski left the group for a brief period, one of the women working in the café came over and entered into the conversation. She stated that some of our servicemen who stopped there to have drinks during World War II and subsequent thereto, told ‘Professor’ Adamski of the atrocities which they were forced to commit, murdering women and children on orders of their superior officers. [Deleted] exhibited a great deal of animosity against the United States, stating the United States committed more atrocities during World War II than did the Japanese but since the Japanese were the ones who lost the war, they were the ones who were tried as war criminals.”

The source had more to say, as the FBI papers demonstrate: “This woman added that a friend of hers who recently returned from Russia stated he was very pleased with everything he found there. He stated to her that the people in Russia received seven tickets per month for the opera and cinema. These tickets are free, being issued by the government. The woman added ‘The people there (in Russia) don’t have to be worrying about where their next meal is coming from. Everything is fine in Russia and in the United States we have to fight for everything we get.'”

There was this, too, from the FBI: “[Source] advised that Adamski returned to continue his conversation stating that the United States will soon be in the same condition that Europe was in during the last war. He added that ‘It is a good idea to be quiet now. Right now if you talk in favor of Communism you will be spotted as a Communist and if you talk against Communism you will be spotted by the Communist, so it’s best to just shut up.’ Adamski stated to [source] that ‘The United States hasn’t a chance to win the war. Russia will take over the United States.'” This was all deeply inflammatory. It’s no surprise, at all, that the FBI made Adamski a person of interest.

Now, let’s focus on the matter of potential Russian meddling and the UFO Contactee movement – way back in the 1950s, no less. Truman Bethurum was someone who, in the early-to-mid 1950s, claimed flirty, close encounters with a beautiful alien space-babe named Aura Rhanes. Most people, very understandably, dismissed Bethurum’s tales as fantasies run wild. After all, at the time, his second marriage was on the rocks. It’s intriguing, however, to note the following words from Bethurum:

“Two or three fellows who had sons in Korea and who read a lot in the newspapers about the Communist underground in this country, were convinced in their own minds that I was, if making contact with anyone at all, making it with enemy agents [italics mine]. They even went so far as to tell me belligerently that they intended to get guns and follow me nights, and if they caught up me having intercourse with any people from planes, airships of any kind, they’d blast me and those people too.” Was Aura Rhanes a figment of Bethurum’s imagination? Could she have been an alien? Or, might she have been one of those “enemy agents” to which Bethurum referred? Just maybe, a Russian enemy agent seeking to manipulate the UFO scene?

Now, let’s take a look at the words of the late Jim Moseley, who, for years, ran the Saucer Smear newsletter. Moseley said of his time spent in 1950s-era Ufology: “…I had fallen under the influence of Charles Samwick, a retired army intelligence officer. Both a saucer fiend and very concerned about Communist subversion. Samwick was active in New York City-area saucering circles. Quite sincere and most convincing, he told me…‘the Communist Party has planted an agent in every civilian saucer club in the United States [italics mine].’”

Interestingly, in the June-July, 1955 issue of his other newsletter, Saucer News, Moseley stated: “…Let us give some very serious consideration to the many alleged space men being called to the public’s attention – all of whom invariably tell us of the dangers of war and the exploitation of atomic energy. No one desires peace any more sincerely than we do, but let us remember too that it is part of the Communist ‘peace line’ to frighten the American people into ceasing our atomic experiments. It is quite possible that some of these ‘space men’ are unwittingly playing into the hands of the Communists.” Or, maybe, the “space men” were communists: Russian communists. Moseley also offered this: “Could it be that Orthon [one of George Adamski’s alleged, extremely-human-looking alien visitors] was a Communist agent [italics mine], maybe from the Red Planet – or at least the Kremlin – rather than Venus?”

Orfeo Angelucci was another of the early UFO Contactees. Although he never gained the level of popularity that George Adamski achieved, he certainly left his mark on Ufology. His books included The Secret of the Saucers and Son of the Sun. Angelucci made an intriguing statement in the early years of his time as a Contactee. He revealed that on one occasion, and while on a “tour of the East,” he met with what he described as a “subversive element.” That same subversive element attempted to “convert me to Communism” and – more significantly – to “slant my talks along the Party Line [italics mine].”

Whoever these meddling communists were, Angelucci made his position very clear: “Communism is the negation of all that is honest and good in the world and in humanity. They would enslave the human mind. Their obstructiveness is willful and planned. We must eventually meet this murderous element at Armageddon; when it will be victory for one side or the other. Good will triumph, or evil! Every entity in the world and the adjoining planes is now aligned definitely upon one side or the other. No matter what the outcome of the conflict, the positive element of good will ultimately attain a greater life and progression; whereas the negative will meet death, destruction and a new beginning in a more hostile environment. As you have made your choice, so be it!’”

Was there a concerted, meddling effort on the part of the Soviets, back in the early 1950s, to use the UFO Contactee issue as a means to promote communism and the Russian way of life? Was George Adamski’s clear admiration for communism provoked by him having been influenced by the very same people that approached Orfeo Angelucci? Maybe Truman Bethurum too? And, maybe even to create hysteria and fear in the United States? Don’t bet against it. Take, for example, the matter of the CIA’s Robertson Panel, which, in part, addressed the matter of UFOs and how the phenomenon could potentially be manipulated for sinister purposes. In the very same time-frame that the Contactee movement was at its height, the panel’s members feared that Russian interference might have an adverse effect on U.S. national security. On this matter, I will leave you with the words of the Robertson Panel and their thoughts on the matter of UFOs, the then-Soviet threat, and possible Russian manipulation:

“…although evidence of any direct threat from these [UFO] sightings was wholly lacking, related dangers might well exist resulting from: A. Misidentification of actual enemy artifacts by defense personnel. B. Overloading of emergency reporting channels with ‘false’ information [italics mine]. C. Subjectivity of public to mass hysteria and greater vulnerability to possible enemy psychological warfare [italics mine].”

Nick Redfern (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE

0 comments:

Post a Comment